Resolution of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International

Henryk Cimek

Resolution of the Presidium of the

Executive Committee of the

Communist International

Polityka i Społeczeństwo nr 5, 250-256

2008

HISTORICAL SOURCES „Politics and Society” 5/2008

RESOLUTION OF THE PRESIDIUM OF THE

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST

INTERNATIONAL

(based on an annotated translation from Russian by

Henryk Cimek)

Top secret

Polish fascism, unable to deal with an intensifying revolutionary

agitation of the masses solely by means of open terror has made

espionage, sabotage, guerilla major provocation instruments in its

struggle against the workers’ movement, all anti-fascist and

democratic forces, corrupting with dirty methods the whole political

and social life in Poland. For years it has sent its spies to infiltrate all

democratic workers’ and peasants’ organizations. The followers of

Piłsudski have, however, invested most of their efforts to infiltrate the

Communist movement which has constituted the biggest threat to

Polish fascism.

The Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist

International has stated basing on solid empirical data that the

leadership of the Communist Party of Poland

has been for years

permeated with enemies, spies of Polish fascism. Triggering often

fictitious cleavages in the workers’, national-democratic and petty

bourgeois organizations, the supporters of the Piłsudski regime

introduced their spies and provocateurs who – being supposedly in

1

A draft of the resolution by the Executive Committee of the Communist International concerning the dissolution of KPP (Communist Party of Poland) was handed in to Stalin by Georgi Dymitrow on the 28th of November in 1937. Stalin approved of the draft four days later. On the 16th of August in 1938, it was signed by 6 members of the Secretariate of the Executive Committee of the Communist International, after its title was ultimately changed to – „Resolution of the Executive Committee of the Communist International”.

opposition – joined the Communist movement (the Polish Socialist

Party

group led by Sochacki-Bratkowski

, the Poalei-Zion group led by

Henrykowski and Lampe

, a Ukrainian S-d

group, the UWO group of

Wasylkiw-Turiański

, a group of Byelorussian SRs

– Korczyk, the

3

Polska Partia Socjalistyczna.

4

Sochacki Jerzy (1891–1933), known by Bratkowski, Czeszejko and other names, organized within PPS (Polish Socialist Party) leftist opposition groups since mid – 1920s. In February of 1921, his membership in the party was suspended for those activities by Centralny Komitet Wykonawczy (Central Executive Committee of the Polish Socialist Party), then his case was discussed by a party court. In September of 1921, a conference took place to join the „group of PPS (Lewica) members” with KPRP during which Sochacki was co-opted to the Central Committee of KPRP. Sochacki was also an activist of KPZU and of the Communist International as well as being an MP delegated by KPP (1926–1928).

5

Poalei Syjon [Zion] – the Jewish Social-Democratic Workers’ Party of Zion, was split in 1921. Some of its members joined KPRP. The group was led by Saul Amsterdam-Henrykowski (1898–1937), Alfred Lampe (1900–1943), Gerszon Dua-Bogen (1892– 1948) and others.

6 _{S-d is an abbreviation standing for social democracy. In this particular case, the}

Ukrainian Social Democratic Party is meant which – following its congress on the 18th of March in 1923 – adopted a political programme similar to the Communist one. In consequence, it was delegitimized on the 30th of January in 1924. The fact blocked a merger between USDP and Związek Proletariatu Miast i Wsi (Union of the Proletariat of Cities and Villages). As a result, some of the members of the delegitimized USDP joined KPZU. In February of 1924, five members left Ukraiński Klub Sejmowy (Ukrainian Sejm Club): Wasyl Mochniuk, Andrzej Paszczuk, Tomasz Prystupa, Józef Skrzypa and Jakub Wojtiuk. They created Klub Poselski USDP. Subsequently, the deputies, with the exception of Mochniuk, established Komunistyczna Frakcja Poselska (Communist Fraction of MPs) on the 7th of November in 1924 together with ZPMiW deputies (Stefan Królikowski and Stanisław Łańcucki).

7

Osip Kriłyk (1898–1933?), known as Wasylkiw and Roman Kuźma (1894–1940), known as Turiański, were leading members of Komunistyczna Partia Galicji Wschodniej (Communist Party of the Eastern Galicja) (1919–1923) and of KPZU (1923–1937). They did not, however, belong to the secret Ukrainian Military Organization (UWO), created on the 30th _{of August in 1920. The latter was an anti-Polish and anti-Soviet nationalist}

organization which aimed at uniting all Ukrainian lands with a support from Germans. After the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists was established in 1929, the UWO became part of the new organization.

8

The term „eserowec” used in the document refers to so called social revolutionaries, i.e. members of the Party of Byelorussian Socialists-Revolutionaries. Paweł Korczyk (1891–1937), real name Jazep Łohinowicz, belonged to the party in the years of 1920–1922. Later he was one of the founders of the Byelorussian Revolutionary Organization (1922) which became part of KPZB on the 30th of December in 1923. BOR was not a social revolutionary organization. Its stance on the

„Wyzwolenie” group – Wojewódzki

). The Polish defensive

, planning

arrests in such a way so as to exclude from Communist organizations

the most loyal elements, gradually implanted its own spies in the

leadership of the Communist Party. At the same time, to ensure its

provocateurs and spies enjoyed authority vis-à-vis workers and

members of the Communist Party, the fascist regime frequently

sentenced its agents to imprisonment, staging orchestrated court

proceedings against them only to liberate them when the first

opportunity arose, organizing „prison breaks” and „exchanges” of

prisoners for spies and guerilla fighters caught in the acting in the

USSR. Assisted by their agents implanted in the leadership organs of

the Communist Party, the Piłsudski functionaries nominated during

parliamentarian elections candidates to the Communist Deputy

Fraction

– people who were supposed to be communists, such as for

instance Żarski

, Sochacki, Dąbal

, instructing them to make

peasant and national issues was close to the one represented by resolutions by the II Zjazd KPRP (II Congress of KPRP) (19th of September – 2nd of October in 1923). Korczyk belonged to leading activists of KPZB and the KPP.

9

On the 11th of November in 1924, four left-wing members of parliament: Adolf Bon, Feliks Hołowacz, Antoni Szapiel and Sylwester Wojewódzki left Związek Polskich Stronnictw Ludowych „Wyzwolenie” (Union of Polish Peasant Parties „Liberation”) and „Jedność Ludowa” (People’s Unity) and founded a separate Klub Poselski Niezależnej Partii Chłopskiej (Deputy Club of Independent Peasant Party) (1924–1927). The Club was also joined by Stanisław Ballin and Włodzimierz Szakun who left PSL Wyzwolenie in July of 1924. Somewhat later they were also joined by Alfred Fiderkiewicz (on the 25th of March in 1925 r.). The NPCh was a legal revolutionary party, collaborating with KPP and the Peasant International (1923–1931). Wojewódzki was also a member of KPP.

10 _{The defensive, known also as „defa” – was a popular name given to the state}

police investigation bureau (1919–1939) and the political police (1924–1926) in Poland whose tasks included fighting the revolutionary movement.

11

Komunistyczna Frakcja Poselska.

12

Tadeusz Żarski (1896–1934) initially belonged to the PPS, later he became one of the leaders of the PPS-Opozycja (1919–1920) which joined KPRP in August of 1920. Żarski was inter alia a deputy member of the Central Committee of the KPP (1923–1925, 1927–1930), member of the Central Committee of the KPP (1925), member of Biuro Polityczne (Political Bureau) of the Central Committee of the KPP (1923–1925) and a member of parliament (1929–1930).

13

Tomasz Dąbal (1890–1937) joined KPRP after leaving Chłopskie Stronnictwo Radykalne (Radical Peasant Party) in 1920. In July of 1921, together with Stanisław Łańcucki he established Frakcja Sejmowa Posłów Komunistycznych (Sejm Fraction of Communist Deputies). A year later he was sentenced to 6 years of prison. In the

cative speeches which the fascists used to initiate black propaganda

attacks directed against the Soviet Union and to carry out bloody

repressions against the worker and peasant movement.

The gang of spies and provocateurs, which became anchored in

the leadership of the Communist Party of Poland, continued to

implant its agents in local structures, systematically betraying the best

sons of the working class and handing them in to the enemy, year

after year. By means of organized betrayals, it destroyed the party

organizations both in the core Polish territories and in Western

Byelorussia and Western Ukraine. Incessantly, it negatively affected

the party’s political line in a manner which made Communism lose

support by the masses while the party became more and more hostile

and alien to the Communist International. Carrying out its destructive

activities, Polish fascism often took advantage of the

Trotskyist-Bukharin traitors who had already been agents serving the Polish

defensive or willingly turned into them because of the political views

shared with fascists. Using its agents, the Polish defensive instigated

fighting between the party fractions, both within the Kostrzewa-Warski

group and within the Leński-Henrykowski group

. It used both fractions

to de-organize the party and the activities it carried out among the masses

as well as to separate the workers from the Communist Party.

But the most insidious was the role of the spy ring with regard to

the USSR which executed there the tasks of fascist intelligence. Taking

framework of an exchange of prisoners, he left for the USSR (on the 15th of March in 1923) where he held many positions, being for example a deputy of the general secretary of the Peasant International (1923–1928), a vice-chairman of the Executive Committee of MOPR (1924–1926) and a vice-chairman of Byelorussian Academy of Sciences (1932–1935).

14

The document refers here to the fighting between fractions which took place within KPP after the May coup d’etat by J. Piłsudski (1926). The so called majority and minority fractions fought one another. The former fraction was led by authors of the resolutions adopted by the II Congress of KPRP, among them Maria Koszutska-Wera Kostrzewa (1876–1939) and Adolf Warszawski-Warski (1868–1937). The latter fraction was headed by Julian Leszczyński-Leński (1889–1937), Saul Amsterdam-Henrykowski (1898–1937) and others. The conflict between the fractions was rooted in earlier cleavages which divided the activists. The discussion was mainly couched in the slogan of a fight against right-wing inclinations, which only aggravated the sectarian tendencies and personal animosities. The tenor was dominated by the ultra-leftist „minority” which aimed at changing the party leadership, criticizing predominantly the authors of the II Congress resolutions and the conceptions adopted then. The „minority” won the fight between the fractions in mid – 1929. It took over the leadership of the KPP supported by Stalin.

advantage of the nationalist preconceptions of the most backward

masses of the Polish nation, by means of provocative undertakings the

ring tried to obstruct the friendship between the nations of Poland and

the nations of the Soviet Country and undermine – on behalf and in the

interest of the fascist military regime – the road to peace which was

followed by the great Soviet Country with an unceasing commitment.

Simultaneously, Polish fascism systematically exported agents of the

class enemy to the USSR, who pretended to be political émigrés, in

order to carry out inimical and pernicious intelligence operations.

All attempts at expelling the agents of the Polish fascism out of the

echelons of the Communist movement without changing the present

organization of the Communist Party of Poland have proved to be inept

because the leadership organs of the party have been taken over by the

spies and provocateurs who took advantage of the difficult, illegal

situation of the Party to remain in its leadership.

Taking all this into account as well as to create for decent Polish

Communists an opportunity to reconstruct their party and to purify it

from the agents of the Polish fascism, the Presidium of the Executive

Committee of the Communist International, basing on its statute and

resolutions of the congresses of the Communist International, decides

to dissolve the Communist Party of Poland because of its being littered

with spies and provocateurs.

It also recommends that all decent Communists should – until the

Communist Party of Poland is rebuilt – refocus their activities with

a view to all mass organizations of which workers and working class

people are members, fighting for unification of the worker movement

and for the creation of an anti-fascist people’s front in Poland.

At the same time, the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the

Communist International warn Communists and Polish workers against

all attempts, which might be undertaken by Polish fascism and its

spying, Trotskyist-Bukharin conspiracy, to create under the guise of

a pseudo-Communist party of Poland wherein a new organization of

the espionage-sabotage nature which could aim at disintegration of the

Communist movement.

The Communist International realizes that thousands of the Polish

Communists dedicate themselves and their lives to serve and defend the

true interests of the working masses. It knows that the heroic Polish

proletariat has in its memorable revolutionary history more than a few

magnificent periods of struggle against the tsarist and

Austro-Hungarian monarchies and against Polish fascism. It acknowledges the

heroic deeds of the Dąbrowski military battalion

which the Polish

proletariat sent to defend the Spanish nation. It is also convinced that

the Polish proletariat will have its own Communist party freed of

insidious agents of the class enemy which will really lead the working

masses in Poland in their struggle for liberation.

G. Dymitrow, D. Manuilski, M. Moskwin, Kuusinen, Florin, Ercoli16

(The present document is re-printed on the basis of facsimiles preserved in the Rossijskij Gosudarstwiennyj Archiw Socialno-Politiczeskoj Istorii (RGA), which used to play the role of the Centralnyj Partijnyj Archiw pri CK KPSS. The facsimiles are stored in the division of the Communist International – f. 495, op. 2, d. 1280). See also H. Cimek, Komuniści, Polska, Stalin 1918–1939, Białystok 1990, s. 166–169.

15

Poles who fought on the side of the Spanish Republic in an international brigade, of which the Jarosław Dąbrowski (XIII) battalion was part. The international brigade, created in June of 1937, included battalions of J. Dąbrowski and of A. Mickiewicz. The brigade was in organizational terms part of the 35th _Division

commanded for some time by General Karol Świerczewski (June 1937 – May 1938).

16

Dymitrow Georgi (1882–1949), an activist of the Bulgarian and international worker movement, a Bulgarian state activist. Since 1902 a member of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers’ Party, since 1919 a member of the executive Committee of the Communist Party of Bulgaria, active in the Executive Committee of the Communist International (1923–1933), in 1933 arrested in Berlin and charged with setting Reichstag on fire, freed in 1934; a general secretary of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (1935–1943), until November of 1945 living in the USSR; since March of 1945 a general secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Workers’ Party (Communists); since 1946 Prime Minister, since 1948 General Secretary of the Bulgarian Communist Party.

Manuilski Dmitrij (1883–1959), a Soviet party and state activist, since 1903 a member of Social Democratic Workers’ Party of Russia, a revolutionary in the period of 1905–1907; in the years of 1921–1922 a secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine; since 1924 a member of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International, in the period of 1928–1943 its secretary; in the years of 1920–1923 and 1949–1953 a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Ukraine; in the period of 1944–1953 vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic; in the years of 1923–1952 a member of the Central Committee of All-Russian Communist Party.

Moskwin, real name Trilisser Meir Abramowicz (1883–1940), a Soviet party and state activist; an activist of the Executive Committee of the Communist International. Since 1901 a member of the Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party (the Bolsheviks), a revolutionary in the period of 1905–1907; since 1921 in the central apparatus of WCzK (Vecheka, an acronym for All-Russian Extraordinary Committee to Combat Counter-Revolution and Sabotage); since 1926 deputy head of OGPU (Joint State Political Directorate). One of the organizers of the Soviet Intelligence. Since 1935 a secretary of the Executive Committee of the Communist International; persecuted in 1938, in 1940 shot, posthumously rehabilitated.

Kuusinen Otto Wilhelm (1881–1964), an activist of the Finnish and Soviet workers’ movement. Since 1905 in the Finnish Social Democratic Party, one of its leaders; a deputy to the Finnish autonomous parliament delegated by the Finnish Socialist Party (1908–1917); in 1918 a co-founder of the Finnish Communist Party; since 1921 permanently stayed in the Soviet Russia and then in the USSR; in the period of 1921–1939 a secretary of the Executive Committee of the Communist International; in the years of 1940–1958 a vice-chairman of the Highest Council of the USSR; since 1941 a member of the Central Committee of the All-Russian Communist Party; since 1958 a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

Florin Wilhelm (1894–1944), an activist of the German and international worker movement; a member of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (1917– 1920), then a member of the Communist Party of Germany, a member of its central apparatus since 1924, since 1925 a member of the Central Committee of the Party; since 1929 a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Germany; a deputy to the Reichstag; a secretary of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (1935–1943). He died in Moscow on the 5th of July in 1944.

Ercoli, real name Palmiro Togliatti (1893–1964), an activist of the Italian and international worker movement, a politician and a journalist. Since 1914, a member of the Italian Socialist Party; since 1921 a co-founder of the Italian Communist Party, since 1922 a member of its Central Committee, since 1927 its general secretary; since 1925 a member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International; took part in the Spanish civil war in the years of 1936–1939; since 1940 in the USSR, in 1944 returned to Italy; in 1944 a Minister without portfolio, then (until 1947) vice Prime Minister and Minister of Justice; since 1948 President of the Communist parlia-mentarian fraction.